Corporate vet practice CVS has launched what is billed as a state-of-the-art nurse academy to help the company's 1,000+ veterinary nurses develop their skills.

Once they have qualified, nurses can enrol onto the MiNurse Academy through a new online training platform and study four modules - Advanced Medicine; Advanced Surgery; Emergency and Critical Care and the Clinical Nurse Practitioner. Training is delivered through a combination of taught practical days and online learning and, once a module has been completed, knowledge is assessed through case reports, online tests and assignments.

CVs says it introduced the MiNurse Academy, at an investment of more than £50,000, in order to enhance career development opportunities for its qualified nurses and to ensure greater consistency in their training and development.

Charlie Clarke RVN and Regional Training Manager at CVS, said: "Qualified nurses play an essential role across our practices and are key members of our team. We wanted to enhance the current internal training and give them the opportunity to progress their careers. MiNurse offers them the opportunity of more structured development and learning more specialist skills."

Louise O'Dwyer MBA BSc (Hons) VTS(Anaesthesia & ECC) DipAVN (Medical & Surgical) RVN Clinical Director (pictured right), added: "As registered veterinary nurses, it is essential that we remain up to date with current veterinary concepts, treatments, techniques and products. The provision of high quality CPD is paramount in allowing nurses to achieve this level of knowledge and skill - and this is what we want to achieve with the MiNurse Academy courses.

"We are utilising lecturers who are both  experts within their field and well respected as speakers to achieve this goal. As a veterinary nurse I know how difficult it can be to be able to afford CPD, and also to be able to spend time away from busy practice so we wanted to make access to training as straightforward and achievable as possible. We will manage this via the use of webinars, available as both live sessions and as recordings for the majority of the sessions."

Charlie added: "We consulted our nurses in the development of MiNurse Academy and they are enthusiastic to get started. The first students will be enrolling in December 2014, ready to start in January 2015. We look forward to welcoming them."

PS: Whilst you're here, take a moment to see our latest job opportunities for vet nurses.